Author: sportsconnectafrica

The Ghana Revenue Authority Basketball Team was in the country for one week to play friendlies with local teams at various locations in Nairobi. This is the first time Kenyan basketball teams were playing international friendlies. It was a good opportunity for our local clubs to gauge themselves in terms of style of play, strengths and weaknesses.

The teams that participated in this international friendly include, USIU(Men), ZETECH( Ladies and men), Thunder, Storms, RIARA(men), Stathmore(Ladies and Men), KPA(Ladies), and Ulinzi Warriors.

Venues of the matches were rotated to give the Ghanians a feel of the various playing turfs that we have in Kenya. Some matches were played outdoors in USIU and Strathmore, while the indoor court experience was felt at YMCA in Shauri Moyo, World Hope center and to crown it all, the Kasarani indoor gymnasium.

GRA Ladies vs Strathmore

GRA Ladies vs Storms

GRA Ladies vs Zetech

The visitors really lauded the facilities that we have in Kenya and and wished they had similar facilities back at home.

The first game was played against USIU men team at USIU the GRA team popularly known as “The Braves” won the game with 69 points, which was a good start for the visitors considering how well the USIU men team was playing.

GRA vs Ulinzi Warriors

Other interesting matches were with, Thunder which was strongly contested where Thunder won by one basket on the final whistle. Strathmore Storms and KPA ladies teams were worthy opponents to the GRA ladies team while USIU and Ulinzi Warriors also gave the men team a run for their money.

The GRA team also visited DIWOPA in Kayole for a CSR activity where they conducted a training clinic for the kids.

Sports Connect Africa is looking forward to organizing more international friendlies in basketball and other sports for the development of the sports in Kenya.

This season, we were privileged to host three accomplished coaches, Coach Cliff Owuor, Head Coach at APR Rwanda( Rwanda Defense Forces), Coach John McGraw, CEO & Founder, Insider Exposure and Coach Carrey Odhiambo, immediate outgoing coach for the Kenya National Team and former KBF Premier League champions Co-op Bank. He is the current coach of Equity Bank. Together they brought over 70 years of basketball coaching experience to Vikapu. They focused on basketball basics, personal skills development and life skills engagement for the players. There was also a host of other experienced coaches in the camp who helped in training the kids.

Coach John McGraw

Coach Cliff Owuor

Vikapu Elite Coaches

VIKAPU EXPERIENCE AT KIDS FESTIVAL, CARNIVORE

The Vikapu experience was extended to the Churchill Kids Festival held at Carnivore Grounds on 14th April 2018. Kids together with their parents got a chance to be involved in fun activities around basketball. Our coaches were on ground to guide the enthusiastic kids and teach them a thing or two about basketball.

We believe there is a lot of opportunity to get more Kenyans involved in the game. There is so much potential and love for the game of basketball and Vikapu is at the forefront of delivering skills and basketball love.

As part of our growth strategy for Vikapu Elite Basketball we shall be having the following: Vikapu Camp – August & Dec 2018, Vikapu Youth Basketball League and Vikapu Weekend Program.

Kenya Table Tennis Association together with Sports Connect Africa hosted the Women in Sports Conference that took place during the ITTF Africa Cup which was held between 1st and 3rd March in Kasarani. The idea of the conference was to enhance the experience of the tournament and to engage stakeholders to know more about the sport of table tennis and sports at large.

The objective of the conference was to highlight the current situation of women in sport, to look for opportunities to encourage women to participate in sports at all levels and to engage partners and stakeholders to be involved in women sports. The event came in time as the world was preparing to celebrate the International Women’s Day. (8th March)

The turnout was amazing comprising of an eager audience drawn from federations, sports stakeholders, players and mangers. Kenyans generally are hungry for sports content especially around sports development and commercialization.

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The Physiological and Psychological Issues for Women in Sport panel was one that really captured the attention of the audience. Theses aspects of sports sparked lots of interest and questions among the audience. Sports nutrition and Sports Law were a new concept to most of the audience. This (Sports Law), is an area that Kenya as a country has not really taken seriously. The conference was privileged to have Sarah Ochwada, the first African woman to hold an LLM in International Sports as one of the panelists among other distinguished women who are doing exceptional things in the field of sports.

Sarah Ochwada (with mic), first African Woman with an LLM in International Sports Law.

Sports Connect Africa will continue having more sports forums to engage stakeholders in discussions around women in sports business in Kenya and beyond.

Sports Connect Africa held its first edition of the Africa Sports Business Mixer at Metta, Nairobi. This is the first event of its kind whose aim is to help understand what sports business is all about and how the ecosystem around sports business in Africa is and how to tap into this multi-billion industry.

This will be a quarterly event that will be held at various locations in the region.

The next edition is slated to be held in Kampala, Uganda due to demand for such discussions around sports business.

The main of these mixers is not only to make people understand what sports business is about but also to connect sports business entrepreneurs, to create a platform to exchange ideas on how to improve the sports business environment and also a forum to network and learn new things.

At each mixer, there will be a carefully selected panel of industry opinion leaders and experts on the topic of discussion who will give insights to that topic as well as answer questions from the audience. There will also be a moderator who is not only knowledgeable about the sports industry but one who is also able to ensure that order prevails during the event.

For the first mixer, the panel discussed the topic “What is Sports Business?” The panel consisted of Martin Keino, MD Keino Sports Marketing, Peter Gacheru, MD IMG Kenya, Robert Muthomi, CEO Football Kenya Federation and Weldon Kennedy of Enda footwear.

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Subsequent events will have equally interesting panelists to make the event meaningful and worthwhile.

Why isn’t sports a bigger revenue generator for the country and why aren’t local events as well attended as the Under 18 Athletics Championship was in Kasarani for instance?

The sports economy can be defined as all economic activities which require sport as an input, that is all goods and services which are related to a sport activity. These include sport clubs, public sport venues, sport event organizers and sports equipment and merchandise sales as well.

Data from other countries indicates how large this sector of the economy can be; a 2012 report by the EU found that as of 2005, value added by the sports-related sector was up to Sh21.2 trillion (173.86 billion euros) and the direct effects of sport, combined with its multiplier effects, added up to Sh36 trillion (294.36 billion euros) in the EU.

These are the kinds of discussion the Sports Business Mixers aim to tackle. There will be topics of discussions across the board that aim to delve further into sports business.

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